Lorain zoning vote hurts plan for heroin treatment center

By
Richard Payerchin, The Morning Journal

Thursday, June 5, 2014

LORAIN — A city zoning vote has stymied plans to create a new residential heroin addiction treatment center in Lorain’s former Holy Trinity Catholic Church, planners said.
However, Lorain’s safety-service director agreed the mission of the center is noble, but the location is not a good one to house people struggling with drug or alcohol addiction.
On June 4, the Lorain Zoning Board of Appeals denied a variance and conditional use permit for the new Primary Purpose Center Holy Trinity Campus Recovery Services.
Planners hoped the closed church at 2428 Elyria Ave. could be reused to house 29 men and women, with intensive daily counseling in a drug-free and alcohol-free environment.
The center would operate in partnership with Lorain County Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services Inc., which would pay for treatment for about half the residents, according to plans.
“We’re just sick of seeing young kids die,” said Edward P. Barrett, Primary Purpose Center president and chief executive officer. “We just want to stop the epidemic in Lorain and all over, but this was our start.
“Some of these people want help and I want to give them an option of somewhere to go so they can quit dying and quit committing crimes,” he said.
The conditional use permit was needed to allow for a residential social service facility, according to city records.
The variance was needed because Primary Purpose Center would sit about 765 feet from a youth home already approved at the nearby convent of the former St. Stanislaus Catholic Church, which also was closed.
Lorain’s zoning code requires at least 1,200 feet between residential social service facilities in R-3 zoned areas.
“What we want — and our job — is to plan these things appropriately,” said Lorain Safety-Service Director Robert Fowler, who voted against the zoning changes needed.
“The cause itself is valid, is needed, is justified. The location is not. I made it clear, I’m a supporter of this cause but not the location.”

The need for treatment
The Lorain Municipal Court judges have seen defendants who are caught up in the epidemic of heroin use that is plaguing Ohio, said Judge Mark J. Mihok.
The judges are in close contact with Lorain County Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services Inc. caseworkers who visit the court each Friday for referrals of drug users, he said.
“The heroin epidemic is everywhere and it’s leading to not only people of all ages and backgrounds dying from overdoses,” Mihok said. “Heroin is so addictive the addicts are stealing to support their habit.”
The court process at times does not have a fast response to defendants accused of using the drug, Mihok said.
In Ohio possessing any level of heroin is a felony, so municipal court judges first see defendants, but bind over the cases for consideration by the Lorain County grand jury at the common pleas court, Mihok said.
It can take an average of six weeks for the grand jury to consider a case, he said.
Meanwhile, defendants or their family members may post bonds so addicts get out of jail, continue using drugs and possibly commit crimes to get them, the judge said.
The new center would
create a rapid response process for heroin addicts, a treatment method that is
new for Lorain and Lorain County, said Mihok and Thomas Stuber, president and chief executive officer of LCADA.
Nonviolent, non-drug-dealing addicts could choose to go from jail to the Primary Purpose Center, but they would have a probation officer assigned to their case and if they left, they could be arrested, Mihok said.
“We think it makes sense and can work to save lives and reduce crime, which is the goal here,” Mihok said.
The plan also had endorsements from Lorain Ward 5 Councilman Eddie Edwards, police Chief Cel Rivera, Lorain County Sheriff Phil Stammitti and the Lorain County Commission.

Intensive treatment
The former Holy Trinity Catholic Church has been closed since about March 2009, when the Cleveland Catholic Diocese restructured and eliminated parishes across northern Ohio.
Financing was in place and the group of Primary Purpose Center planners, who have maintained longtime sobriety, had a contract with the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland to purchase the church, which is a campus with five buildings, Barrett said.
With the zoning change, the planners hoped to use the rectory and convent this summer to house offenders who would undergo counseling each morning and support meetings in afternoons and evenings.
The residents would have 60 days of intensive counseling, 30 days to look for jobs and, if they found work, they could rent a room there for up to three months to live in a sober environment, Barrett said.
The planners also developed a relationship with Minute Man temporary staffing service to find jobs for residents, Barrett said.
The vision for the center includes plans to develop training spaces for food service and auto repair so residents could learn new job skills.
The church would be renovated to create additional living quarters for residents, although the planners wanted to preserve the church’s fresco paintings created in 1947 by artist Romeo Celleghin, Barrett said.
“So it’s probably a million dollar investment in the city of Lorain,” he said.
“The whole thing is, we found a vacant building that fit our purpose,” said Barrett, who also is owner of Lorain Auto Service on Broadway. “Being a business owner in Lorain, I don’t like vacant buildings.”

Concerns about other residents
Primary Purpose Center would sit within 1,200 feet of the former St. Stanislaus Catholic Church, which now has become the Fountain of Life Church.
Inside Out, a faith-based community organization based in Springfield, owns the St. Stanislaus complex. Inside Out, along with In Focus of Cleveland Inc., plan to develop a youth home at the convent of the former St. Stanislaus convent.
On April 2, the Lorain Zoning Board of Appeals approved conditional use permits for the organizations to operate the residential social service facility in a B-2 zoning district.
“So we’re going to put 72 people addicted to heroin right next to troubled youth? Does that make sense?” said Fowler. He was referring to an eventual number of residents at Primary Purpose Center.
“I don’t think I can support it next to a residential youth facility,” he said.
“I don’t know that I ever would.”
On June 2, In Focus of Cleveland Executive Director Ricky Ferguson also said his organization opposed the location of the Primary Purpose Center.
Ferguson sent the notice in an email to Lorain Chief Building Official Richard
Klinar and the Board of Zoning Appeals members were aware of it at the June 4 meeting.
But it was a surprise to the Primary Purpose Center planners, who believed the leaders of In Focus and Inside Out ministries would support the facility, Barrett said. They hope to obtain letters of support and possibly get reconsideration at Lorain City Hall.
The situation was “a little cloudy,” Ferguson said on June 4. The leaders of In Focus, Inside Out ministries and Primary Purpose Center need to sit down and discuss if their facilities can co-exist in Lorain, he said.
“That conversation needs to happen,” Ferguson said. “It could get spun out of control. It could be something that is blown out of proportion. It could be something that could be a quick fix, but communication really needs to happen.”